


truth is free but it's easier to lie

by starryhoch (slytherminie)



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. References, Alternate Universe - Spies & Secret Agents, Banter, Blood and Injury, Guns, Hydra (Marvel), Implied/Referenced Torture, Kidnapping, M/M, Marvel Universe, Near Death Experiences, Sexual Tension, aka soongyu lie about how much they care and love each other, all the things you'd expect to see in a spy movie i guess, and divorced soongyu as well, and kinda married again, married soongyu
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:33:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28219269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/slytherminie/pseuds/starryhoch
Summary: Well, Mingyu was married once, a long time ago. Not anymore. Now he was married to his job, and only to that.
Relationships: Kim Mingyu/Kwon Soonyoung | Hoshi
Comments: 12
Kudos: 39





	truth is free but it's easier to lie

**Author's Note:**

> Heeeey my dear people! Here I am with yet another brainworm that I couldn't get out of my head no matter how hard I tried!!
> 
> For the people that don't know anything about Marvel, _Hydra_ is an evil organization and _S.H.I.E.L.D._ is the spies organization that tries to stop them from committing crimes. The _Quinjet_ is just an aircraft, [this](https://oyster.ignimgs.com/mediawiki/apis.ign.com/marvel-studios-cinematic-universe/5/59/Quinjet_1.png) one.  
> For who knows Marvel, but has never watched Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., no need to worry. You don't need to know the characters to understand this story.  
> For who has watched aos (hello! come talk to me I'll tell you all about my casting choices for svt!!!), Soonyoung is Lance Hunter and Mingyu is Bobbi Morse!  
> Most of the dialogues in here are taken directly from the tv show and adapted to fit soongyu a bit better. 
> 
> TW!!! Please be mindful, there are heavy mentions of blood and injuries in here, as well as kidnapping and other secret agents stuff. If you don't think you can read, feel free to stop here :) Also let me know if you think other tags should be added! 
> 
> Enjoy the ride :)

It all came down to this: the dried tear tracks on his cheeks, the burn around his wrists and ankles caused by the metal cuffs around them, the taste of dirt on his tongue, the rag in his mouth pressing against his lips and making it hard to breathe. 

He didn’t know how much time had passed since he was tied to that chair, since he fought with all he had against the drugs making his movements slower. Since he woke up, he’d been crying and shouting, but to no avail. There was no one there to save him. Time rolled by slowly, making him aware of the passage of it only because of the way the light in the room changed as the day progressed, as the afternoon set in and shadows appeared through the opaque windows. 

Stupid, that was what he had been. Extremely stupid. He felt so smug, toying with his captors, acting like he didn’t have a care in the world, like he was going to best them easily. Look at where he was now, in an abandoned warehouse who knows where, with an automatic rifle pointed at the door he was sitting in front of. He hoped no one would come for him. He hoped his team would be smarter than that. He hoped that that door wouldn't open. 

It was better like that. If he died, his secrets died with him. If he died, his blood wouldn’t be on anyone’s hands - he did all of this on his own, an idiot with too many words in his mouth, words he shouldn’t have said. Toying with death all those years didn’t teach him anything at all, apparently. 

He felt dehydration setting in, his tongue heavy in his mouth. The burn around his wrists grew as he wriggled in his seat, once again trying to get free - the only results he got were fresh abrasions on the surface of his skin, but he tried to ignore them as best as he could, his eyes scanning what he could see of the room to find an escape route, to no avail. There was not much around him, aside from the rifle pointed at the door, and the chair he was tied to. Shadows grew longer as the sun began its descent. He had been there for a while. 

The metal door in front of him was too far for him to reach, not when the chair he was sitting on was chained to the floor - his captors really thought of everything, didn’t they? Look at him now, helpless, on the verge of breaking down. A desperate wail escaped his throat, muffled by the cloth in his mouth. He truly hoped no one was looking for him.

Maybe Seungcheol thought he was already dead. It wasn’t that absurd as an assumption: he had been missing for days now, when he was supposed to radio in at the first available occasion. Making the chains rattle, he tried once again to get free. The metal sank in his skin some more, making him cry out at the painful sting. If they thought he was dead no one would come to look for him, which meant he would die there, alone. That was fine. He could make peace with that. 

Taking a deep breath in through his nose, he let his eyes fall shut, his head tip back. That wasn’t the worst case scenario, he reasoned with himself, because he knew that at least Soonyoung got out of there alive. 

Or so his captors told him. 

He made some rookie mistakes, he was aware of that. He gave those people a bone to sink their teeth into, and they took it all, took the arm that he was offering it with as well. Rookie mistake, going in there unarmed. Rookie mistake, speaking too much. Rookie mistake, being overconfident that someone would cover his ass - that Soonyoung was going to act as carelessly as he usually did. He failed to consider the attachment, failed to consider _feelings_. Well, he couldn’t blame himself for forgetting those were there in the first place, when all they had done for years had been screaming at each other. But he guessed there was just too much history behind them, to compress it all in a little word starting with L. 

⊲

Well, Mingyu was married once, a long time ago. Not anymore. Now he was married to his job, and only to that. 

Which consisted of being a babysitter for a terrified biologist, apparently. 

“Listen, dude. I said it once already. Follow me if you don’t want to die.”

The guy - Seungkwan? Was that his name? - raised an eyebrow at him, clearly not convinced. There was just not enough time to explain the situation to him, they were almost cornered. The scientist’s gaze fell down, to the symbol sewed on the front of Mingyu’s jacket. 

“I know what this looks like, but you don’t have many choices. You trust me and you survive, or you knock me out and you die in a minute or two when those Hydra agents you just escaped from find you again.”

Seungkwan scrunched his nose, the gun in his hands still aimed at Mingyu. That had been such an awful day for Mingyu. It took Seungkwan one more minute and the sound of boots scuffling on the floor just down the corridor to convince him to put his weapon down. As a reflex, Mingyu’s arms fell to his sides as well. 

“Smart choice.”

“Who are you, exactly?”

“We’ll keep the explanations for later, dude. Follow me.”

They sneaked through corridors, long strides and sharp stops to hide behind corners, trying to avoid the security looking for them, until they reached the stairs. Suddenly, there was a voice behind them, someone spotting them as the door closed on their backs. Mingyu pushed Seungkwan's shoulders, silently signaling for him to climb upstairs as he took the battle staves strapped to his hips in his hands, ready to fight. 

“Run!” He yelled behind Seungkwan as the door opened, and a Hydra agent tried to punch him in the face. Wrong move. Mingyu dodged, aiming the weapon in his right hand at the solar plexus of the enemy, making him wheeze in pain, as his other hand struck him upon his head, rendering him unconscious. More voices could be heard down the corridor, but he didn’t have enough time to deal with them if he wanted the extraction to be successful. With a precise blow, he broke the handle of the door and hoped that it would buy them enough time, before he ran behind Seungkwan, up to the roof. 

The scientist was standing there, on the edge of the balcony, a step away from the ledge. There was no time for explanations, Mingyu realizes, no time to tell him his plan. 

“We need to jump.”

Seungkwan looked at him like he lost his damn mind. Maybe he did, maybe the months he spent pretending that he agreed with the evil organization he was infiltrated in destroyed his sanity. That was a problem for another day. 

“Trust me,” Mingyu said, putting his hand out for Seungkwan to take. The shorter man stared at it, and then at the buildings below them, and at the ground, several meters down. He shook his head, but then clasped his fingers around Mingyu’s. 

“3, 2, 1!” 

There was the sound of someone firing a gun behind their back, but they were already free-falling, the bullet flying way above their heads. The drop was short, invisible metal thudding when their bodies hit against it, the Quinjet reappearing once the pilot removed the invisibility shield around it. Perfectly calculated trajectory. 

Once inside the aircraft, Seungkwan melted to the floor, his back against one of the seats, both of his hands over his heart. Mingyu sat in front of him, unable to contain the victorious little grin pulling at the corners of his lips. 

“Shit, that was terrifying,” Seungkwan said out loud once he regained control of his shaking limbs and his troubled breath, staring at the pilot. “It’s so nice to see you, Minghao! I missed you so much!”

The other man threw a glance over his shoulder to smile at Seungkwan, his face softening once they made eye contact - Mingyu could see that Minghao had been worried for Seungkwan’s safety by the way his gaze moved all over his body to assure that he was safe before it moved back to the air in front of them, out of the windshield. 

“It’s nice to see you in one piece, Kwan.” Silence stretched for a minute as Seungkwan finally stood up from the floor to sit properly on the plastic seat, crossing his ankles and staring at Mingyu, expression stern. 

“So?” He asked, folding his arms over his chest and tapping his fingers over his biceps, clearly waiting for Mingyu to introduce himself as he promised. A snort coming from the general direction of Minghao made them aware that the pilot was enjoying their interaction. Mingyu tilted his head to raise an eyebrow at him, mirroring Seungkwan’s stance.

“Agent Kim Mingyu, at your service.”

“Why didn’t I know there was another double agent working alongside me?” Seungkwan squinted suspiciously at him, as if he wasn’t sure he could trust him. A shrug, Mingyu let the grin on his face melt into a genuine smile. 

“Seungcheol sent me in to keep my eyes on you,” he said, watching as Seungkwan’s mouth fell open in surprise. “You weren’t supposed to know in the first place.”

“Why the need for two agents, then?” 

Another tiny shrug, Mingyu sank further in his seat. “I couldn’t get my hands on the tech, you know? You’re the only one capable enough to understand Hydra’s evil masterplans.”

Seungkwan seemed to inflate at the praise, his chest puffing out for a brief second, before he immediately deflated, his eyes falling to the tips of his polished shoes instead, lips jutted out in a pout. 

“Fuck, the plans. I forgot the chip inside. All these months have been for nothing! I mean I remember most of the things I’ve seen, but still, having the blueprints would have been ideal.”

Biting on his bottom lip to suppress a giggle, Mingyu reached inside his jacket, searching his inside pocket for the very thing he was assigned to protect with his life, if necessary - Seungkwan first, the chip second, those were Seungcheol’s instructions. Mingyu was proud of having managed to get both out of trouble.

“You mean this?” He said, waving the device in the air, Seungkwan’s eyes growing three sizes at the sight, his hands moving to cover his lips. 

“Oh my god!” He squealed, “ Kim Mingyu, I think we’re going to be very good friends.”

The first giggle came from Minghao’s direction, but Mingyu’s followed suit. He surely hoped they would.

⊳

He must have passed out or dozed off, because when his eyes focused back on the metal door in front of him, the shadows covering the grey walls were longer, darker. The taste of blood in his mouth was still there, a headache looming at the sides of his brain. He wondered how hard he hit his head, how many wounds were there on his face - he felt the sting of them every time he scrunched his nose, and could taste the blood on the tip of his tongue. It didn’t really matter how battered and bruised he was since he was about to die soon, anyway. 

Letting his head fall forward, he tried once again to shake his limbs, tried to tug on the cuffs around his wrists - he almost thought of breaking his own thumbs to get free of the metal shackles, but that wouldn’t lead him anywhere, still trapped by the restraints around his ankles that kept him in place, unable to get out of those. The tender skin of his forearms screamed in pain when the metal dug into it some more, blood slowly trickling to his fingers as a wound opened up, staining his hands in red.

He wondered what would get him first, the dehydration, the concussion he was sure of having, or one of the broken ribs poking in one of his organs and leading him to internal bleeding, or to a punctured lung. None of those were ideal ways to go, but Mingyu didn’t really have a choice to begin with, a slave of the circumstances. If only he wasn’t so stupid to begin with. 

There was flimsy hope in his heart that Seungcheol wouldn’t send anyone after him, but if he knew the guy - and in the past few months they spent working together Mingyu was sure that he got to know him, at least a little bit - he had probably sent out an extraction team the moment Soonyoung came back and informed them of his location. Well, that if Soonyoung actually made it back in once piece and wasn’t dead in a ditch somewhere. 

Despite how he would have liked to say that the idea of Soonyoung being dead didn’t bother him in the least, he couldn’t lie to himself, couldn’t lie to his own heart; the principle of it all, the fact that lead him to sit here, desperate for death to come over him, was that he wanted Soonyoung to be safe and sound, out of there, unreachable from the people that tried so hard to kill him. Despite how much he would have liked to say that he wasn’t sacrificing himself to save Soonyoung’s life, that was a blatant lie. 

It didn’t matter in the end, because Mingyu would never know if Soonyoung actually made it out of there, if he was safe and sound back at the headquarters. He could picture him, if he wanted to, precise images of him lounging in his underwear in Mingyu’s bed, a cunning grin on his lips as Mingyu stared at him, imprinted the memory of his body, of his aura, at the back of his mind, to be collected and stored for later. Every time could have been the last. 

That last time, Soonyoung had pressed kisses over his jaw, hidden whines against his clavicle, sucked hickeys on his neck. There was no need for words between them, too practiced, too at ease with each other to need anything but soft moans and roaming hands, curt directions given with stares and fingers. Soonyoung spoke only to let out a whimper that sounded suspiciously like Mingyu’s name, and Mingyu stole the word from his mouth with his tongue, didn’t let it hang in the air between them. 

“Mingyu!” It still echoed in his mind, the voice taunting him even in his last moments. Fucking Kwon Soonyoung, couldn’t even let him die in peace. 

“Mingyu!” 

His eyes shot open. That wasn’t a memory. That wasn’t his addled brain playing tricks on him. That was Soonyoung’s voice, loud and clear, filtering through the metal door and echoing inside the room, a whisper brought to him by the wind. 

“Mingyu!” 

Mingyu whined against the gag in his mouth, his words dying before they could be spoken in the air. Shaking in his seat, he realized he was powerless. He threw a glance at the rifle pointed at the door, standing at his side, a step back from where he was seated. Unreachable. 

Fuck. 

⊲

The whole team was waiting for them once they got back to headquarters, big smiles on their faces despite the fact that both Mingyu and Seungkwan had both blown their covers and Hydra was once again on their tracks. Wonwoo put an arm around Mingyu’s shoulders almost immediately, tugging him down in a hug that felt long overdue, Mingyu’s body sagging in his hold. 

“It’s so nice to have you back,” he breathed in Mingyu’s ear, which made the taller of the two cling harder to him, squeezing Wonwoo’s middle before letting him go. When they separated, Seungcheol was looking at them with a tiny satisfied smirk upon his face. 

“Everything went according to plan, I see,” he told Mingyu, shaking his hand in a friendly gesture that Mingyu couldn’t help but reciprocate, grinning back at the man in charge of the whole operation. 

“All good, director,” Mingyu replied, his eyes following Seungkwan as the biochemist moved around the room to hug each and everyone of the guys there, exchanging pleasantries with all of them. Then, his eyes fixed on a glass door, on a guy standing with his back to them, head hunched over a keyboard, tapping away furiously on it. Seungcheol took a look at Seungkwan, at the expression on his face, and tilted his head in the direction of the lab on the other side of the door.

“Go ahead,” he whispered, to which Seungkwan nodded his head, moving slowly as if he was approaching a wild animal, steps careful and calculated. Mingyu felt like intruding while he watched the scientist get closer to the unnamed man, and he was glad the glass walls protected their conversation from prying ears, the expressions on their faces telling enough. Unable to keep his eyes on them, Mingyu let his gaze wander on the room.

There were some people Mingyu wasn’t very familiar with, - despite the fact that he was officially part of the team, he wasn’t around much before going undercover, and some faces still didn’t have a name to them, - yet he couldn’t help but notice that one of the few people he thought he’d see was missing.

“Mingyu?”

Speak of the devil, and he shall appear. Mingyu felt eyes on the back of his neck, and he turned around before they could burn a hole through his skull.

“Hey, Soonyoung.” The smile that was on his own face melted as he put his eyes on the newcomer, his expression setting in stone, eyes staring right at Soonyoung, taking in his appearance. “Nice suit.”

“Nice suit?” Soonyoung raised his eyebrows, sounding disbelieving, his mouth hanging open as he blinked, looking at Mingyu as if he was a ghost. “Really? That’s what you’re leading with?” It took him a second or two of staring at Mingyu before he spoke again, a scowl appearing on his face before he opened his mouth. 

“What did you do to your hair?”

Of course Soonyoung would notice such a trivial little thing as Mingyu dyeing his hair, and of course he’d sound so pissed off about it. Despite the need to stay calm, Mingyu couldn’t help the eyeroll that naturally came to him as he crossed his arms over his chest, shrugging his left shoulder.

“Ever heard of undercover?” 

“I prefer you as a brunette.”

Soonyoung caring for something as stupid as the colour of his hair made blood boil in Mingyu’s veins. Knowing it was useless to bite his tongue, Mingyu let his annoyance seep into his voice. 

“Well, I didn’t do it for you,” he stated the obvious, shrugging once again, “Two seconds in, there’s already a tone.” 

“This isn’t a tone!” Soonyoung raised his voice, clearly upset, which made Mingyu’s need to reach over to bash his skull against the closest hard surface raise exponentially. He planted his nails in his own biceps. “This is my speaking voice when I’m upset with an unreasonable person!”

Refusing to give Soonyoung any type of answer or to break eye contact with him, Mingyu stood there with his arms crossed over his chest. It took a couple more seconds for Soonyoung to finally snap. 

“Anyone care to explain what the hell he’s doing here?” Soonyoung said, gesturing vaguely at Mingyu’s entire body. Seungcheol moved, taking a couple of steps to stand right next to Mingyu, smiling at him sincerely before replying to Soonyoung, his dimples showing up for a brief second when he put his hand over Mingyu’s shoulder, squeezing it lightly. 

“Mingyu is one of our best agents,” Seungcheol confirmed, making a genuine grin appear on the taller man’s face. A point for him. Looking ready to tear his hair out in exasperation, Soonyoung threw his hands in the air. 

“Oh, that’s rich,” he scoffed, “Then would you mind telling me what _am I_ doing here?”

That was the fun part. 

“Easy.” Mingyu raised an eyebrow at Soonyoung, watching closely at the disbelief that seeped into his expression. “I vouched for you.”

“Why the hell would you do that?!” Soonyoung exclaimed, clearly on the verge of having a breakdown right in the middle of a crowded room. Mingyu bit on his tongue when Seungcheol replied in his place.

“Be nice,” the oldest told Soonyoung, patting his shoulder before moving to the next room, his office, gesturing for Mingyu to follow him in there. Throwing one last glance at Soonyoung, Mingyu complied to his orders, feeling Soonyoung’s eyes glued to his back as he moved through the door. 

That was going to be fun. 

⊳

“Mingyu!” 

Soonyoung’s voice echoed into the almost empty room, filtering below the door, through the air conducts, filling the space and making Mingyu shake in his seat, yet another useless attempt at getting free from his restraints that resulted in a scorching pain in his injured wrists, his whole body screaming with the effort.

In the time he spent trying to figure out a way to at least get the gag out of his mouth, he realized that the cuffs around his wrists were too tight to do anything about them, and that he probably had a broken bone in his leg - he vaguely remembered someone kicking his knee, and a deafening crack that he’d rather have forgotten about. 

“Mingyu!” Soonyoung seemed to be moving closer to him, the faint sound of footsteps coming to Mingyu’s ears together with the calls of his name. He gulped down another yell that didn’t get past the cloth between his lips, his throat starting to hurt with the way he was trying to release sounds in the air, to warn Soonyoung. It was all in vain, because he could hear the soles of his boots hitting the floor as he moved closer, probably walking down the corridor in his direction.

Fucking Kwon Soonyoung, Mingyu couldn’t help but think, he shouldn’t have been there. He should have been somewhere safe, somewhere where Mingyu didn’t have to worry about his life. Not there, not when there was an armed weapon pointed at the door, not when once that door would be open, an unsuspecting Soonyoung would get a bullet through him, impossible to avoid.

Fucking Kwon Soonyoung. 

“Mingyu!” The voice seemed even closer now, probably a few steps away. The shadows in the room clung to Mingyu, their darkness seeping through his wounds, making his heart beat into overdrive as he waited with bated breath for the door to open. He threw one last glance behind his shoulder, at the rifle, polished, deathly metal ready to fire its final blow. It was a split second decision.

“Mingyu.” Soonyoung was right behind the door, Mingyu could tell. He heard the way Soonyoung’s breath hitched once he probably saw Mingyu’s blood on the floor outside, coating the grey cement in brushes of dark red. He heard the sound of the lock as Soonyoung turned the handle. He took a deep breath in. 

There wasn’t much he could do, his movements limited by the chains that kept him tied to the chair, and the chair to the pavement. Maybe he could make it, if he gave himself enough momentum, if he used all of his body weight and let himself fall to his left side. It was just a matter of right timing. A click as the door opened. 

The bang of the rifle shook his core as hot, red pain shot through his left shoulder. The chair bounced back into its place as Mingyu sagged forward, the ache so sudden and strong that he almost blacked out, Soonyoung’s shocked face covered in a splatter of Mingyu’s blood the only thing he saw before his vision went black. 

“Gyu!” 

⊲

Mingyu couldn’t believe he was sitting next to Soonyoung on an aircraft, ready for their first mission together in a very long time. Despite how hard he was trying not to look in the older man’s direction, his eyes kept wandering towards him, attracted to him like if he was a magnet. He looked good, Mingyu couldn’t deny it, even if a bit too thin. Life must have been hard on him in the time they hadn’t seen each other. 

Despite that, Soonyoung _did_ look good, black hair cut short and kept neat, eyes focused in front of him as he played with a blade held between his fingers, making it turn with deft movements. The black turtleneck he was wearing hugged his torso like a glove, his biceps flexing as he put the dagger away and his elbows over his thighs to prop his chin between his open palms.

“You look good,” Mingyu told him, throwing another glance at him before focusing on the row of seats in front of them, ignoring the eyes that snapped in his direction. 

“Oh, yeah?” Soonyoung replied, sounding confused. “Thanks.”

Instead of an answer, Mingyu shot him another glance paired with a half grin, hoping that would be enough. He didn’t know why he voiced his thoughts out loud to begin with, his mouth working faster than his brain. 

“And you know, with the dark hair and everything,” Soonyoung droned on, making Mingyu turn in his direction once again, cocking his head to the side. He had recently dyed his hair back to a dark shade of brown, almost black, and he noticed the lingering gazes Soonyoung sent his way the day he showed up like that at the headquarters. His burning stare was hard to miss. “You don’t look bad yourself.”

“It’s nice of you to say,” Mingyu replied, an eyebrow raised in Soonyoung’s direction, “because I heard you’ve been telling people that I’m a hellbeast.” 

A frown appeared on Soonyoung’s face, eyebrows knitted together in concentration as if he was trying to remember ever saying something similar. 

“Oh,” he started, shaking his head in denial, “No, I don’t think so.”

According to Wonwoo’s retelling of the story, Soonyoung’s exact words had been: “Things between us didn’t work out because interspecies relationships are hard: I was a human whereas he was a demonic hellbeast.”

Now Mingyu stared at Soonyoung as he scrambled for words, vigorously denying everything. 

“I definitely didn’t use those words specifically.” Squinting at Mingyu, Soonyoung kept shaking his head no. “It doesn’t even sound like something I’d say, really,” he concluded, his eyes going back to fix in front of him, a slight blush covering the tips of his ears. Cute, Mingyu thought, before he bit on his tongue to stifle a chuckle. 

“If you say so,” Mingyu shrugged, still trying to suppress a smile. “You know how these things are, someone must have heard a word and created a whole story about it.”

There was visible tension in Soonyoung’s stance that made amusement flare inside Mingyu’s chest, his ex lover’s jaw clenched as he purposefully avoided Mingyu’s eyes. They kept their silence - and distance - for the rest of the flight, until Jihoon confirmed that they finally got to their destination, leaving the cockpit once they landed. 

“Someone will need to infiltrate,” Jihoon told them as they looked at the villa’s planimetry on a screen, checking with heat scanners to see how many hostiles were inside. Mingyu put his arm up. 

“That’s a bad idea,” Jihoon shot him a glare, “You’ve been undercover at Hydra, what if someone who can recognize you is inside?”

Mingyu shrugged. “I think it’s worth the risk. I’m the only one here that looks less like a spy and more like an actual man coming for business.”

There were two pairs of eyes on him that scanned his body from head to toe, and Mingyu did nothing to stop them, crossing his arms and puffing his chest out, letting them assess the truth. 

“He can handle it,” Soonyoung spoke in the end, nodding his head in Mingyu’s direction, “Deception is his forte.”

Mingyu and Jihoon shared a meaningful glance, as Soonyoung cringed at his own words, putting his hands up in the air and waving them as if to placate Mingyu. “I mean that sincerely, not passive-aggressively, as it is a good asset for a spy.” 

A smirk appeared on Mingyu’s face as Soonyoung scrambled for words, gesturing wildly before giving up and sighing to himself.

“Fucking hell,” he concluded, as Jihoon and Mingyu shared yet another silent glance with each other. Fucking hell, indeed. 

⊳

“Gyu!”

Mingyu’s head felt so heavy, he couldn’t even look up to see the terrified expression on Soonuyoung’s face that he caught a glimpse of the moment he heard the gunshot. The pain in his left shoulder was the only thing he could focus on, hot and persistent, a black hole that sucked in all of his sensory perception, the only thing that he was aware of in his universe, as terrifying as it was.

Nothing else existed in that moment, only the hole through which he was sure blood was trickling down - he could vaguely feel it seeping in his shirt, soaking it. It was a white buzz, his whole arm vibrating with pain as if bees were crawling under his skin, trying to break the surface of it from inside to get free. 

“Gyu, gyu,” Mingyu heard Soonyoung saying, being aware of the fact that he was closer now, crouching down between his legs, fiddling with the cuffs around his ankles and wrists. “C’mon, stay with me Gyu,” Soonyoung’s voice registered in his brain, but all Mingyu could do was open his eyes to stare at him through the haze in his mind, seeing black at the corners of his vision. Soon enough he was lying on the floor, Soonyoung looking down on him, tears in his eyes. Mingyu wanted to reach up to wipe the wetness away from his face, but he couldn’t really feel his left arm anymore. 

Soonyoung’s hands were on his face, shaking him gently to make him keep his eyes open. 

“Stay with me, Gyu, please.” Soonyoung’s words came out strangled, as if he was fighting against the tears welling up in his eyes, “Don’t leave me, stay with me.” 

Mingyu felt like he was floating, his head swimming as Soonyoung’s voice sounded further away the longer he stayed there, on the dirty floor of an abandoned warehouse, bleeding to death out of a bullet wound in his shoulder. He was supposed to die alone, not like this. Not with Soonyoung crying over his body, with Soonyoung begging him to keep on breathing, to keep on fighting. 

Suddenly, Mingyu could hear Jihoon’s voice, and then he felt arms around his middle, Soonyoung still whispering words that were meant to distract him from the pain, but that didn’t do much - all Mingyu knew in those moments was the scorching, hot ache that pulsed through him, making his head spin, his stomach queasy. 

“Please Gyu, please.” 

Soonyoung’s voice was thin, a murmur against Mingyu’s hair as he carried him out of there, Jihoon’s words in the background calling for backup - saying that there was an agent down, a lot of blood, a bullet wound that needed to be taken care of immediately. 

“Gyu, stay with me. I can’t do this without you.” 

Mingyu found the strength to open his eyes one last time. Soonyoung’s face was wet, his eyes set in stone as he looked ahead. He committed to memory the way the last rays of the dying sun looked on the crown of his head before he let his eyelids flutter shut, his head loll back. Darkness enveloped him, finally freeing him from the scorching pain that seized his body, finally letting him rest. 

⊲

There was wine in Mingyu’s glass, but he was just pretending to drink, as he was pretending to laugh at the words the man in front of him was saying, words he didn’t care about at all. Maybe Soonyoung wasn’t wrong when he said that Mingyu’s forte was deception, maybe lying for so long made him extremely skilled at this whole undercover spy thing he was doing. 

“I heard you came here with a proposition,” the guy said, his eyes fixed somewhere on Mingyu’s exposed chest - around his collarbones, or lower, he wasn’t sure. He suppressed the urge to smirk, crossing his ankles below the table instead.

“That I did, dear.” Putting his elbows on the table, Mingyu leaned in, biting his lip in a way that couldn’t be mistaken for anything but suggestive. “Would you like to hear it?”

The man in front of him slouched back in his seat, rapping his fingers on the polished surface in front of him, his gaze still not meeting Mingyu’s. There was something about the man’s gaze that made Mingyu’s skin crawl, goosebumps erupting on his skin that he tried to suppress by faking another sip of wine.

“I’m all ears, agent Kim.” 

Fuck. 

“You know, when I saw you at the front door I didn’t recognize you immediately, because in the pictures of your spectacular escapade you had blonde hair. But now, from up close, I see who you are.”

A sinister smile curled his lips up, and Mingyu felt the need to reach inside his boot and take hold of the knife hiding there. He didn’t, sitting still in his seat instead, and staring at the guy with all the calm and composure he could master. The hair at the back of his head was rising, which probably meant there was someone behind his back, ready to snipe him at his first wrong movement. 

“You’re smarter than you look,” Mingyu affirmed, grinning when the guy in front of him slammed a fist on the table, clearly annoyed with Mingyu’s poker face. There was movement in the peripheral of Mingyu’s vision, and then the sound of a bullet being fired, and of a body hitting the floor behind his back. Mingyu didn’t turn around, using the distraction instead to jump over the table and kick the man in his stomach before he could be able to aim the gun in his hand at him. 

With far too much ease, Mingyu disarmed him, taking hold of his weapon before aiming a well directed punch to his face and making him sink to the floor. It was then that he turned around, meeting Soonyoung’s gaze, who was standing there with a little self-assured smile on his lips, gun in his hand. 

“You can thank me later,” Soonyoung said, polishing his nails on the lapel of his jacket as if he just pulled the best stunt of the century. 

“Thank you?” Mingyu scoffed, gritting his teeth; he could feel the beginning of a headache at the sides of his brain. Fucking Kwon Soonyoung. “What the hell were you thinking?”

“What was I thinking? I just saved your life!”

“You don’t think I knew that guy was behind me?” Mingyu took some steps forward, getting in Soonyoung’s space, towering over him. Never one to back down in a challenge, Soonyoung tilted his face upwards, puffed his chest out. “This? This is just you peacocking!” 

“He was gonna kill you! And sweetheart, no, this isn’t about peacocking.” 

Before Mingyu could reply, the guy who he just kicked to the ground crawled to his knees, clearly trying to get away. Mingyu raised his armed hand in the air, pointing the gun at the man; Soonyoung mirrored him, and they fired their weapons at the same time, the body sagging to the ground as two bullets pierced through him. 

“Are you even listening to yourself right now?” Mingyu went back to arguing, fixing his gaze back on Soonyoung. “Oh, of course you are, you love the sound of your own voice!” Sarcasm dripped from his words as he sneered in Soonyoung’s direction, reigning himself in from planting a bullet through his thick skull as well. 

“Because it’s reasonable! One of us has to be.”

Mingyu couldn’t believe his ears. Trying to stay calm, he spoke his next words in a whisper instead of raising his voice like he really wanted to, seething in anger. 

“This is what makes you so aggravating to be with.” 

Not even giving him time to finish the sentence, Soonyoung spoke rushedly over him.

“Hence you’re not with me anymore! Lucky us.”

“Yeah, lucky us indeed.”

Behind them, Jihoon rolled his eyes. 

“Let’s go, lovebirds.”

⊳

When he came to his senses, the beeping of a heart monitor was the first thing that greeted him, its loud noises disturbing his ears as he opened his eyes to the room, his eyelids fluttering as he adjusted to the harsh lights. It took a minute or two for his brain to get out of the haze it was enveloped in, as he blinked slowly and breathed through his nose, feeling the plastic tube that was supposed to help him get oxygen in his body digging through his nostrils, extremely annoying. 

He felt numb, his whole body floating on a cloud as he registered the absence of pain in his arm - as his mind helpfully replayed the shot for him, the sound that reverberated through his bones and shattered him in two. 

Throwing a glance to the side, he took in the room he was in, probably the hospital ward at S.H.I.E.L.D’s headquarters, the machines hooked up to him on his left side, the love of his life on his right, curled up in his seat, sleeping with his head over his bent knees, feet on the chair. 

“Hey,” Mingyu murmured, his voice hoarse as he called for Soonyoung’s attention. Soonyoung stirred, unfurling from his seated position, his legs spreading out to be rested over the edge of the mattress Mingyu was lying on, his face turning to Mingyu, eyes full of concern. 

“Hey.” Soonyoung stretched his arms up, smiling at him, small but sweet. He moved his feet down to the floor, dragging the chair closer to the bed, propping his forearms on the edge of it, his arms crossed, his face close to Mingyu’s. “You’re better. Stupid, but better.” 

Mingyu couldn’t help the frown that knitted his eyebrows together, to which Soonyoung rushed to explain himself. 

“Taking a bullet for me was stupid.” 

“Walking into a trap that you know is a trap is stupid,” Mingyu countered, his voice barely above a whisper. There was a fleeting emotion on Soonyoung’s face, something Mingyu couldn’t quite catch, a play of the lights that made the shadows under his eyes more prominent.

“You were the bait,” Soonyoung said, matter of fact, like that was enough of an explanation for the reckless stunt he pulled. Maybe it was. Maybe Mingyu understood what he meant. 

“Listen, hang in there.” Soonyoung’s fingers traced the edge of Mingyu’s jaw, a caress so soft he couldn’t even feel it. He closed his eyes, fighting back the tears that were trying to escape him, gulping down the feelings clogging his throat. “You have surgery again tomorrow, and Seungkwan has yet to start working on your knee.” 

Mingyu threw a glance at his body, finding out there was a cast around his right leg, keeping the broken bones in place. 

“Soon you’ll be stable, and then…”

“And then?” Mingyu couldn’t help but ask, feeling tired, dejected. Destroyed, in more than one way. He met Soonyoung’s gaze before he spoke, making sure that he heard him well despite the weight that compressed his lungs and made it hard for him to speak. 

“I can’t do this anymore,” he uttered, watching as Soonyoung’s heart broke in a million pieces right before his eyes. 

⊲

Mingyu knew he had made a mistake the moment Jeonghan called him into the infirmary. Hell, he knew he had made a mistake even before that, when he left the interrogation room with hot anger in his throat and the face of a terrified man etched in his memory. He was standing right in front of said man now, who had just tried to take his own life because of the way Mingyu had spoken to him, harsher than necessary, words thrown out carelessly, aimed to hurt. It had been a day, a very bad one.

Soonyoung showing up at his side was a testament to the fact that it was about to become even worse. 

“Are you ok?” 

“Yeah,” Mingyu replied curtly at the inquisition, “What’s up?”

“Nothing. It’s been a hell of a day.”

Unable to stop himself, Mingyu rolled his eyes, letting venom seep in his tone when he spoke again. 

“Please, you don’t need to say that to me.”

“Well, that’s on you. You pushed him a little too hard, didn’t you?” Mingyu could feel Soonyoung’s piercing gaze glued to the side of his face. He didn’t need to look at him to imagine his expression, nose scrunched up and eyebrows knitted - disappointed, that’s what he was. “What were you thinking?”

“I miscalculated.” Mingyu started walking away, but he heard footsteps following right behind him, Soonyoung hot on his trail. “I thought he was gonna talk. He kept on feeding me lies.”

“Oh, and you know that because you’re the best at fabricating them yourself, aren’t you?” 

Mingyu stopped abruptly, turning on his heels, already seething in anger. It was impossible for him and Soonyoung to be in the same room without trying to tear each other apart, without one of them snapping - both of them more often than not. 

“What is it that you wanna know, uh?” Mingyu knew he was raising his voice, but he couldn’t control the anger simmering in his veins, making him want to reach out and punch Soonyoung on his stupid nose. “Just ask! I’ll tell you!”

“It doesn’t matter what I ask,” Soonyoung leaned in his space, pressing his forefinger to Mingyu’s chest, punctuating his words with short stabs against it. “I can’t trust the answer, anyway.”

“I’ve always been honest with you!” Mingyu took another step forward, making Soonyoung stumble backwards in an attempt to keep some space between them, scowl still on his face. “And you can’t accept that! You’re always searching for lies.”

Soonyoung’s eyes doubled in size as he shook his head. 

“You’re a spy! I’d be crazy not to!” With a shrug, Soonyoung folded his arms over his chest. “You know you’ve lied to me.”

Even if he had, Mingyu wasn’t about to give Soonyoung the satisfaction of having the last word in that conversation. 

“This happens every time! We get closer, you get nervous.” 

“We’re not close!” Soonyoung bit out, making Mingyu recoil despite himself. There were few people that could have such an effect on him, and Soonyoung was surely one of them. “You just spent the day trying to get the truth out of a man by almost killing him, when all you do is feeding me lies just like he was doing with you.”

His gaze glued to the floor, Mingyu knew there were tears welling up in his eyes - he didn’t dare look up at Soonyoung until he had reigned all of the emotions in, but despite that his voice came out thin, barely a whisper. 

“Will you ever trust me?” 

Soonyoung shook his head no, his eyes not leaving Mingyu’s. 

“But I’ll never stop wanting to.”

⊳

“Why aren’t you speaking to me?” 

Mingyu was better. He could walk on his own legs, he could breathe without feeling hot pain shooting through the left side of his chest, and through his arm, from his shoulder to the tips of his fingers, but despite that Seungcheol put him on indefinite rest - he was on babysitting duties once again, but this time he had to keep his eyes on both Seungkwan and Vernon. The tension in the lab was palpable when both of them were there, and Mingyu would have honestly taken another bullet to avoid being there altogether. 

Soonyoung was standing in front of his locker, his back to Mingyu, rifling through it in silence. When he turned around, he had a smile on his face that screamed trouble, his eyes disappearing with the force of it. Mingyu’s heart beated just slightly faster in his chest, perking up despite himself at the sight of amusement in Soonyoung’s expression. 

“Because,” he said, closing his locker and making his way over to where Mingyu was sitting on one of the bleachers, plopping down on it with his legs spread out, one on each side of it. “You’re not supposed to see the bride on the wedding day. Or well, the husband in this case.” 

There was a ring between his thumb and forefinger, thrusted right in front of Mingyu’s nose, a ring that he could recognize anywhere, the ring that Soonyoung had put on his finger the day of their wedding - the same ring that Mingyu had thrown at his face during one of their screaming matches, back in the day. 

Mingyu put his palm out, his bottom lip captured between his teeth as Soonyoung let the silver band fall on it. 

“So, are we gonna do this or what?” Soonyoung slid closer on the bench, getting in Mingyu’s personal space and smirking at him, all sultry looks and suggestive raises of his eyebrows. Scoffing, Mingyu held the ring between his fingers and waved it in front of Soonyoung’s amused eyes. 

“I asked for the ring back because I paid for it,” Mingyu told him, matter of fact, “Not as a meaningful gesture of any kind. But thanks, oh great master of melodrama.” With a final side glance, he closed his hand over the cold metal, trapping it in his fist. 

Soonyoung scoffed, getting even closer to Mingyu, almost propping his chin on Mingyu’s shoulder. 

“Right, because it wasn’t at all melodramatic when you whispered on your deathbed,” Soonyoung lowered his pitch to mimic Mingyu’s words, his eyebrows knitted together in a poor attempt at imitating Mingyu’s suffering expression, “ _I can't’ do this anymore._ ”

The eye-roll came natural to Mingyu, his gaze ending up on Soonyoung right after, staring at the half-smirk on his face. 

“I meant pretend not to…” Mingyu trailed off as Soonyoung’s grin grew, the rest of his sentence getting stuck in his throat. _Pretend not to love you_ , was what he wanted to say, but instead he finished off with: “You know.”

Soonyoung shook his head no, his shit-eating grin making Mingyu feel the need to wipe it off his face with his fist, or his lips, or both. When it came to Soonyoung it was hard to discern murder instincts from other type of instincts. 

“I didn’t mean we should make the tragic mistake of marrying each other,” Mingyu pointed out, opening his fist to stare at the silver band sparkling under the neon lights. “Again.” 

“Call it what you will.” Soonyoung finally moved back, leaving Mingyu some space to breathe by getting out of his personal bubble, putting his elbows behind himself on the bench and looking up at him, shrugging his shoulders in the process. He slouched there, eyes never leaving Mingyu as he kept on talking. 

“But now you’ve got the ring you once threw in my face, and we’re fucking on the regular.” 

Mingyu let his eyes roam over Soonyoung’s body, from his spread out thighs framing the bench they were sitting on, to the black shirt tucked inside his pants, his exposed throat as he looked up at Mingyu, his eyes hooded. There was an undercurrent of tension there, as usual, and all Mingyu wanted to do was reach out and knock the confident smile off Soonyoung’s face.

“All that it’s missing is a piece of paper,” Soonyoung concluded, sounding far too chipper about it. There were valid reasons for their divorce, Mingyu knew that, but he couldn’t help himself when he cocked his head to the side to reciprocate Soonyoung’s smile. 

“And your ring. Not that you know where that is.” 

“I know exactly where it is.” Mingyu’s breath hitched in his throat, his eyes growing in size at Soonyoung’s nonchalant admission. He thought by then, after all those years, Soonyoung probably had gotten rid of their love token - even though, if he still held Mingyu’s ring for all that time, it would make sense for him to have his own ring as well, somewhere. 

“I just don’t personally have the scuba diving equipment to retrieve it.”

Mingyu’s lips curled into a wider grin as Soonyoung suddenly sat up, taking the ring from Mingyu’s open palm with his right hand while his left one took hold of Mingyu’s fingers, slowly sliding the metal band on his ring finger. 

“You don’t care about the money, this ring was cheap as fuck.”

A deep breath in, a deep breath out, Mingyu looked up from where Soonyoung’s fingers were intertwined with his own. He was always able to read Soonyoung like an open book, despite how good of a liar his ex husband was. The tenderness in his gaze made him sigh, his free hand cupping Soonyoung’s cheek, brushing his thumb under his eye. 

“I wanted something to hold on to,” Mingyu revealed him, to which Soonyoung’s face fell slightly, his gaze dropping even as he leaned into Mingyu’s touch. “If your mind really is made up.”

Soonyoung chewed on the inside of his cheek before replying, squeezing Mingyu’s hand in his. “I’m going after them, Gyu. Seungcheol has given me the green light.”

“We decided you would wait until I was better.”

“I think having you around would only make things harder.” Closing his eyes, Soonyoung cringed at his own words. “What I mean is you’re a distraction. In a very good way, that is.” 

Mingyu chuckled despite himself, his hand sliding down to find purchase on Soonyoung’s neck, feeling his pulse under the palm of it. It was strong, steady, and it made Mingyu long for things he couldn’t have. 

“I wanna go after them with you.”

“You should focus on healing,” Soonyoung replied, getting even closer to Mingyu, almost breathing the same air as him. “Plus, you’ve been undercover at Hydra, and that face makes an impression.” A pause as Soonyoung’s eyes slipped down, taking in Mingyu’s body before going back to his face. “The rest of you makes a fucking statement.” 

⊲

One minute they were yelling at each other, trading words about breached trust, about relationships that could never exist, could never get fixed, and the moment after Mingyu was pushed against a metal door, the handle digging in his back as Soonyoung tugged him down from the collar of his shirt, raising on his tiptoes to stare at him, eyes hard, cold. A shiver ran through Mingyu’s spine at the sight of Soonyoung’s anger, his nostrils flaring, his pupils dilated.

“I can’t believe we’re still doing this,” Soonyoung told him, sounding bitter, tired. Mingyu felt the same way, his heart slamming inside his chest as he reached up to circle Soonyoung’s wrists, enveloping them in his much larger hands. 

“You’re still the same stubborn, hypocritical bastard that you were back then, so I totally see why we’re still doing this.” 

Soonyoung let a snort out of his nose, his eyebrows knitting together over his eyes as he gritted his teeth together, his jaw clenched. They knew each other too well, knew which buttons were the right ones to push, which words would slice through their defenses and leave them bleeding on the floor, no need for actual weapons to deadly injure each other. 

“And you’re still the same lying asshole,” Soonyoung told him, reminding him of the conversation they had just the previous day - Soonyoung had admitted to not trusting him, but he showed some vulnerability, he showed Mingyu he cared. Now, with his gaze so dark Mingyu thought he could see stars in it, Soonyoung looked ready to take all those words back, to pretend they were never said in the first place. 

“Yet you’re still here,” Mingyu countered, feeling smug when he saw the way Soonyoung’s eyes slipped down, unable to keep the eye contact, “Still listening to the lies I feed you.”

“Shut up,” Soonyoung pushed him, Mingyu’s back plastering even further against the cold surface behind him, “Stop talking.”

“Or what?” Mingyu asked him, raising one of his eyebrows, taunting him, “What are you gonna do, Soonyoung? You’re still here, after all this time, hoping in your silly little heart that the words that come out of my mouth are true.” He let out the manic chuckle that was bubbling out of his throat, feeling delirious, feeling like he was about to handle gasoline with a lit cigarette in between his lips. 

Anger flared in Soonyoung’s gaze, his eyes reduced to slits as he stared at Mingyu, exhaling a hard breath through his nose. Mingyu watched as Soonyoung’s hands clenched even harder on his shirt, using the leverage to bring him closer, and closer, until he was smashing their mouths together, a kiss that was all pent up anger and clacking teeth. 

Mingyu’s hands left Soonyoung’s wrists to grip his hips instead, bringing him closer still, so close they were about to become one single entity instead of two - Soonyoung bit on his lower lip and Mingyu emitted a whine, his mouth opening to let Soonyoung’s tongue in, to let him explore, kiss, suck. When they separated it was only to breathe, Mingyu’s chest falling and raising fast as he gulped down air, his eyes scanning the corridor to see if someone was there to see them. Fortunately, it was only the two of them, and the electricity that hung in the air when their eyes met again. 

Mingyu reached back for the handle, twisting it and letting the door open behind him, dragging Soonyoung inside by his belt before closing it and pushing the shorter man up against it, crowding his space, his hands on either side of his face.

“Are we really doing this? Again?” Mingyu whispered, searching for _something_ on Soonyoung’s face, a flicker of an emotion that would tell him to stop, to take a step back. Soonyoung’s hands roamed the expanse of Mingyu’s chest, starting from his shoulders to slide down, following the hard ridges of his pecs and abs, ending up just below the hem of his shirt, digging his thumbs into his pelvis. Mingyu swallowed down a moan, tipping his head forward to rest his forehead against Soonyoung’s, going cross-eyed to keep his eyes on his lips, bitten red and plump. 

“Nothing is stopping you from getting out of here,” Soonyoung replied, sounding far too smug for someone with his back against the wall, metaphorically and not. 

“This is my room,” Mingyu pointed out with a snort, but Soonyoung didn’t leave him more time to talk, pushing his lips against Mingyu’s and effectively silencing his complaints. Mingyu’s insides felt like molten lava when Soonyoung’s hands moved to the small of his back, bringing him closer while sucking on his tongue, emitting small, whiny sounds that made Mingyu’s arousal spike, his legs wobbling when Soonyoung’s mouth started mapping a pattern down his neck, sucking lovebites on it.

There was no need for more words when Soonyoung pushed him backwards, towards Mingyu’s bed, no need to talk when Mingyu fell down on it and Soonyoung crawled over him, his legs on either side of his torso. Mingyu’s fingers gripped the fabric of Soonyoung’s pants, feeling the muscles twitching below his palms, and he almost cursed out loud. Instead he tugged at Soonyoung’s belt until the message was clear, and both of them got out of their clothes, fast and efficient, working like a well-oiled machine. 

It had been a long while since they were so close together, but it always felt as easy as breathing, always felt like fireworks were going off inside his chest whenever Soonyoung looked at him like he was doing in that moment, his eyes dark, full of want. Careful fingers combed Mingyu’s fringe back as Soonyoung pressed a peck to his lips, far too intimate for the words they had just yelled at each other in the corridor, but Mingyu didn’t mind. He arched his back up to make it last longer, his hands finding purchase in Soonyoung’s hair, tugging at it to keep him closer, to steal a whine out of his mouth. 

Despite how hard and mean Soonyoung had been with him until moments before, in there he was soft and slow, taking his sweet time to explore every corner of Mingyu’s skin as if he didn’t already know it by heart. It made Mingyu shiver, his eyes finding Soonyoung’s in the semi-darkness, asking questions he couldn’t voice out loud. 

The answer was clear as day, spoken with unhurried brushes of fingers over heated skin, with lips over lips, tongue against tongue, and Mingyu didn’t have any trouble reading it: it was a yes, yes, more, please don’t leave me again, yes, I’m yours. 

⊳

“Do you really need to go?”

They were walking down the corridor, towards the hangar, Soonyoung with a bag over his shoulder, dressed for the cold weather outside. 

“You know I do,” Soonyoung smiled at him, small but sincere, “I won’t stop feeling like I need to go after them, you know it. Not after what they’ve done to you.”

“You could have just waited for me to get better.”

Soonyoung stopped in his tracks, tugging Mingyu’s hand to make him come to a halt as well, his fingers squeezing Mingyu’s. 

“You like me stuck in the lab,” Mingyu stated, matter of fact. Soonyoung just gave him a shrug of agreement. “You’re right.”

Mingyu started walking again, Soonyoung not letting go of his hand as they moved through the base, smiling at Seokmin when the younger man peeked his head through the door of the gym to wave at them. 

“You’re missing half a lung because you took a bullet for me,” Soonyoung pointed out, “and you almost bled to death in my arms. The lab is the best place for you to be right now.”

“Mingyu! Do you wanna fly?”

“Or not.” Soonyoung grumbled, letting go of Mingyu’s hand as soon as they put foot in the hangar and found Seungcheol waiting for them, a folder in his hand that he promptly passed to Mingyu.

“Desperately,” Mingyu replied, filing through the report for his next mission. He had been itching to go back on the field, even if it just meant flying the Quinjet and not getting any actual action in. 

Seungcheol winked at him before walking towards the open rear of the aircraft, checking with Jeonghan that everything was ready for the mission. Mingyu closed the folder shut to regard Soonyoung, who had a frown on his face.

“It’s just a recognition mission, nothing to worry about.”

“Be careful.” Soonyoung raised on his tiptoes, his free hand tugging Mingyu’s head down by his hair to kiss him, short but sweet, pouring all his worry into the touch. When he got back to his original height, he patted Mingyu’s right shoulder, always careful not to touch his scar on the left one, because he knew it was still sensitive. 

“Don’t die out there,” Mingyu told him, pressing one last lingering peck on his mouth before taking a step back, leaving Soonyoung to walk away. 

“And Soonyoung,” Seungcheol called from behind Mingyu, making Soonyoung’s attention snap towards him, “Make sure they do.” 

One last nod of his head and Soonyoung turned on his heels, moving towards the back door and the garage where his car was waiting. Mingyu wasn’t sure they would see each other again soon, but he couldn’t do anything else but hope.

“Come back to me,” he whispered to himself, fiddling with the golden band around the ring finger of his left hand.

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/starryhoch) or [curiouscat](https://curiouscat.me/slytherminie) :)


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